Guiding Palm Monk: Gearing up for beginners
This is only an addition to the "Guiding Palm Monk" thread by karma. All the credit to him! Some people convinced me to put this in a new thread, so here it goes.
I've played this build all weekend and tested many many different gear combinations. I'd also like to add that I'm usually not playing a dex class, so I essentially started my gearing at zero (or close to zero; my previous tank monk had a completely different design idea so I couldn't reuse lots of his gear). Many people in this thread have said that this build requires lots of effort and is not suitable for beginners. Well, I beg to differ. Within one weekend my noobish monk went from nowhere to T6 roflstomp mode. Plus, I don't consider myself a good/skilled player, so if I can do it, everyone can. The only thing is to get the gearing right.
Important note: I do not play a monk for DPS, in my opinion there are five better classes right now. If you intend to merge gear with a DPS monk gearset, stop reading. However, if your monk is your main you should have a much easier transition anyways. This is a guide for people like me who only actually want to play a support monk and start his/her gear from scratch.
Phase 1: The basics
Your goals are 70% CDR, 2k all resist, and 10k armor. Everything else is less important; you need to get to these three figures to get the build running. Once you've reached those numbers you will be able to run this build at least on Torment 5 without problems. Your Exploding Palm won't be strong yet, but make sure you stay alive first before boosting your EP damage!
1) Non-craftable gear
The first slot that we want a non-craftable item in is the belt. My choice is a Thundergod's Vigor. It does absolutely not matter which stats it has; it always has at least 160 lightning resist and 426 vitality. You will re-roll one of the random rolls (or dex if it's a dex TGV) to all resist, so this belt alone will provide you with 250-300 all resist. A very good alternative is the String of Ears. Many say it's better than TGV, but note that the melee mitigation currently doesn't work on many elite affixes. TGV's all resist always works.
Secondly, you absolutely need a Ring of Royal Grandeur, preferably a non-dex one (450 str for 450 armor or 450 int for 45 all resist are better than dex). If you have a spare RoRG that you don't mind destroying re-roll any stat to cooldown reduction. Even if you can't do that no worries, we will get there. Just get ANY RoRG.
Thirdly, and this is probably the most difficult item to get, you need a spirit stone (monk helmet). Do some "Rift it Forward" or rifting with other characters and gamble on your monk; you either want a Kekegi's Unbreakable Spirit or, in my opinion even better, The Mind's Eye. Many people prefer the Kekegi's because of its CDR, but I think you can get to 70% CDR even without it and then profit from the insane spirit regeneration that this helmet offers. Kekegi's has a 30 second internal cooldown and even a perfectly rolled one would only allow you for 13.3% uptime of the buff; The Mind's Eye provides you with up to 15 spirit per second and since you're standing in Inner Sanctuary 100% of the time (100% IS uptime with 70% CDR) you get +15 spirit regen per second all the time. Win-win. This is my endgame choice, so it's worth gambling for it. If you get neither of those it's still possible to play this build! Another option to consider, especially in the beginning, is The Laws of Seph. It provides you with insane amounts of spirit, but you need to give up your Mantra of Conviction for Blinding Flash - Repleneshing Light. (Thanks Kueken for the hint!)
Furthermore, you need one additional ring and one amulet. The stats priorities here are simple: 1) 8% cooldown reduction (we don't accept less), 2) lightning resist (mandatory), 3) resource cost reduction, 4) health globe bonus. Toughness stats don't hurt (vitality, life%, strength, intelligence, armor, socket) but don't suffice alone. It doesn't matter which amulet/ring it is, as long as it has at least 2-3 of the first four mentioned stats.
Last but not least, look out for a "crappy Sun Keeper" that would otherwise be salvaged. A Sun Keeper with less than 2000 DPS and no socket is going to get salvaged by anyone, but for us only the elite damage is important. Furthermore, we are going to enchant it for +10% CDR. In the meantime, any other crappy weapon with 10% CDR is fine as well; if you can grab any crap mace or sword with 10% CDR you can even put 10% resource cost reduction on it and you have a pretty good weapon until you get the desired endgame weapon: The Fist of Az'Turrasq, or in short FoA.
2) Craftable gear
Most of your gear can be crafted. You will craft three sets: Crimson's, Born's, and Aughild's. Furthermore, we will craft gloves; this is a perfect opportunity to get rid of all the Adventurer's Journals, or you can craft Asheara's Gloves to be used on your other classes later on if the rolls turn out to be "good". Note that you should craft those on a crusader/barbarian to get strength as main stat roll. Here's a list of all the items you need to craft and the stats you should prioritize:
Born's Furious Wrath: 1) 10% CDR, 2) socket, 3) RCR (strength or vitality are okay as well)
Born's Priviledge: 1) 8% CDR, 2) lightning resistance, 3) RCR, 4) health globe bonus, 5) strength, 6) vitality (only the first two absolutely mandatory, though it doesn't hurt to craft a couple of those, can be re-used on barb)
Aughild's Search: 1) lightning resistance, 2) strength, 3) vitality, 4) physical damage, 5) armor (don't waste too many re-rolls here, any good EHP bracers will do; only need those for the set bonus and eventually you'll replace them with Strongarms.)
Aughild's Rule: 1) 3 sockets, 2) lightning resistance, 3) health globe bonus, 3) elite damage reduction, 4) high armor roll (550+), 5) strength, 6) vitality (getting both secondaries right is difficult here, but helps a lot)
Asheara's Ward or Pender's Purchase: 1) 8% CDR, 2) lightning resist, 3) RCR, 4) strength, 5) vitality (note: unless you plan on using Asheara's on your barb/crusader I'd recommend crafting Pender's Purchase).
For most of those items you only need 2 or 3 of the first 4 priorities, re-roll one with the Mystic, and you're done. This is really not that difficult. If you think you can't farm the materials then join one of the "crafting mats farm" communities; they're awesome and let you get the materials really quick.
Here's a breakdown in Excel of what a really "badly rolled start set" would look like, with only ~3-4 of the desired stats on each gear (really, with crafting and the Mystic this is absolutely doable):
This is assumed that you have paragon 300, 5x 74 all resist diamonds and one top tier diamond for the helmet (plus optional diamonds for weapons or jewellery if you decide to pick a socket here). Furthermore, I've assumed an 8% CDR RoRG; however, as you can see, CDR is already higher than necessary. If you don't have a CDR RoRG you need to hit all the max rolls on every other slot; otherwise you can be below the minimum roll on a few slots and still get to 70% CDR.
3) Paragon points/skills
You will have movement speed on boots, so you need to put between 26 and 30 points there in paragon. After this, max spirit. If you have points left put them in vitality. On the offense tab the order is CDR, IAS, CC, CHD. On defense it's all resist, armor, life%, life regeneration. On utility it's resource cost reduction, then area damage, then gold, then LoH (it's useless in this build).
4) TL;DR: Breakdown of items/stats
For those that are too lazy but can handly acronyms, let's make it a bit simpler: you want Born's shoulders+weapon, Aughild's chest+bracers, Crimson's pants+boots, any RoRG and TGV, and any amulet, gloves, other ring, weapon, and helmet. All gems are diamonds (max in helmet); that includes weapon.
Stat priorities are (in this order): 1) CDR, 2) sockets where possible, 3) health globe bonus, 4) lightning resist, 5) resource cost reduction, 6) strength, 7) elite damage reduction, 8) armor, 9) vitality, 10) IAS.
Stats you really don't want because they don't help at all (or only help so little that it's not worth it): critical hit chance, critical hit damage, dexterity, life on hit, life regeneration, any proc effects (like Thunderfury's proc or chance to stun/slow/freeze), crowd control reduction.
Phase 2: Upgrading from "I can barely do this" to "we own the night"
I'm going to keep this short, because karma covered the BiS gear in his OP already. I'm just going to weigh in my opinion on some of the items that I would choose differently:
1) As I said, The Mind's Eye in my opinion is way better than Kekegi's. I'm close to 40 spirit regeneration now and my EP cost is down to 24 at a spirit pool of 300... I can faceroll my keyboard, I never run out of spirit.
2) TGV over any other belt unless you hit really high all resist (2500ish). It's a freaking 300 all resist. String of Ears, in my opinion, is pretty much useless at the moment as most of the badass elite affixes aren't mitigated by it (seems to be a bug) and those are the only things that kill you. TGV's all res works on everything - ranged, melee, elite. I guess it's a matter of preference, but whenever I died it was due to a situation where the String of Ears wouldn't have helped at all.
3) Born's versus Aughild's. I think many people dismiss Born's too easily. Having more CDR is just insane because it makes stuff so much easier if you have almost zero downtime on Epiphany and you can cast a new IS before the old one disappears. It works so well together with The Mind's Eye and helps me to get over the 8% CDR I lose over my Kekegi's (although it's not necessary anyways to get to 70% CDR). It really helps if you have awesome items (a nice SoJ or Halycon's Ascent) that come without or little CDR. In the spreadsheet below I still chose Aughild's, but right now I'm running Born's (because I just have too damn good rolls on my Born's set items and like the 73% CDR).
4) Max CDR and survivability before thinking too much about physical/elite damage. If I can squeeze in one more EP and palm one more mob, the additional explosion will help more than just a few palms that do higher damage due to maxed out physical/elite damage gear. More palms also help to spread the explosions over a larger area. Your first priority is to stay alive; your second priority is to palm everything.
5) Alternatives for the SoJ: I know that the SoJ is an insanely good ring because of maxing EP, but like I said, I think there are other rings to consider. One that works really well is Krede's Flame. If you have a large health pool (I'm at 650k at the moment) you can easily survive a couple of Molten explosions, but they re-fill my spirit. I want to test a Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band as well, though not sure how good the heal is. I just like that on other rings I can get my perfect stats (8% CDR, 8% RCR, 500 strength, 500 vit, lightning resist or health globe bonus) as opposed to a SoJ that always has a couple of "useless" ones. Other alternatives that are easy to acquire because they're very easy to get are the Litany of the Undaunted (thanks Thaya for the hint) or the Oculus Ring. Both have four fixed primary stats (elite damage reduction, all resist, main stat, and life regen (Litany) or IAS (Oculus)). Note that they can never have lightning resist, you need to re-roll them to CDR, and they absolutely need to have health globe bonus to be worth considering.
Here's a snap shot of my personal "BiS gear" I'm trying to get:
Feel free to point out any mistakes/areas for improvements. It's exactly at 70% CDR but all other stats are insane (super high RCR, 99% elite melee mitigation, and so on). Assumed paragon 500.
Notes: Updated to include feedback suggested by: Thaya and Kueken.
I honestly don't see why you consider TGV to be necessary or even important for this build. The only benefit it has is the extra ~100-150ish resistance - it's really not that big of a deal, you can play without it; obviously I assume that you get a belt with lightning res or all res on it. I also still think String of Ears is way better, because it does work against Arcane and actual melee strikes are still a part of this game and 30% is a big number.
Regarding Kekegi's vs Mind's Eye: if you're at 70% CDR, you don't have any spirit issues anyway via Epiphany, but the reason you can do that and still have enough CDR is because you use Born's. I think the Aughilds + Kekegi's > Born's + Mind's Eye, though, because Aughild's set bonuses are overall stronger. Born's gets you 10% CDR and 15% Life versus Aughild's 15% to elites, -15% from elites, and -7% melee/ranged damage. It's just flat out better, imo, but I guess both variants work. I would put the Aughilds + Kekegi's variant as the primary one, however.
Armor roll is completely irrelevant too. No way you should mention that in front of elite damage reduction (on chest). If you get decent rolls, you'll want to use them regardless of how much armor the item rolled. I wouldn't advice people to pay attention to that at all.
I'd rank sockets on weapons above CDR as well, damage to elites is one of the few things that Exploding Palm does scale with. But it can work without sockets too, I guess.
Along with the "join a crafting community" tip I'd mention that you can craft things on a level 1 character, for those who don't play any of the str classes.
Otherwise this is pretty neat.
Edit: oh I'd also mention Litany as one of the possible rings. That thing drops a lot and it's decent for this build. Elite damage reduction is one of the strongest stats for this imo.
I honestly don't see why you consider TGV to be necessary or even important for this build. The only benefit it has is the extra ~100-150ish resistance - it's really not that big of a deal, you can play without it; obviously I assume that you get a belt with lightning res or all res on it. I also still think String of Ears is way better, because it does work against Arcane and actual melee strikes are still a part of this game and 30% is a big number.
Well, for arcane I definitely always switch to my Julia's Cameo; the healing is just insane. But many other dangerous affixes are not mitigated by the String of Ears (Orbiter, Molten, Frozen Pulse) and those usually get me killed, especially Frozen Pulse because it's sometimes hard to notice. But I might edit that part and mention SoE as alternative. However, I really think one should aim for at least 2000 all resist and I just think that TGV gets you there earlier than the SoE which simply doesn't work on many dangerous affixes but helps a lot for stuff that doesn't kill you (a dozen white mobs hitting you). But yeah, SoE is a viable option.
Regarding Kekegi's vs Mind's Eye: if you're at 70% CDR, you don't have any spirit issues anyway via Epiphany, but the reason you can do that and still have enough CDR is because you use Born's. I think the Aughilds + Kekegi's > Born's + Mind's Eye, though, because Aughild's set bonuses are overall stronger. Born's gets you 10% CDR and 15% Life versus Aughild's 15% to elites, -15% from elites, and -7% melee/ranged damage. It's just flat out better, imo, but I guess both variants work. I would put the Aughilds + Kekegi's variant as the primary one, however.
In my final gear setup I have Aughild's instead of Born's - but still using Mind's Eye, because you can get to 70% CDR without Kekegi's. And honestly, you can never have enough spirit; more EP casts = more heal for the group and more explosions; more CS casts = avoid that a few mobs get away. Even with 300 spirit and 35 spirit regen I run out of spirit from time to time. More is just better and Kekegi's imho is simply no match for a well-rolled Mind's Eye by any stretch of imagination.
Armor roll is completely irrelevant too. No way you should mention that in front of elite damage reduction (on chest). If you get decent rolls, you'll want to use them regardless of how much armor the item rolled. I wouldn't advice people to pay attention to that at all.
Armor on chests can roll up to 595, note that I say "high armor roll". Anyways, as I mentioned it's just elites that get you killed - I'll switch the order there. Thanks!
I'd rank sockets on weapons above CDR as well, damage to elites is one of the few things that Exploding Palm does scale with. But it can work without sockets too, I guess.
I can see socket as second priority but absolutely nothing is more important than CDR, I completely disagree here. If you don't get 2x 10% CDR on weapons you have absolutely no chance of getting to 70% - and imho 70% is crucial. With 70% CDR you've already got an Epiphany downtime of almost 4 seconds and that's already quite dangerous (Frozen/Jailer and GG). But I'll add socket as an alternative and #2 in the final gear, thanks.
Along with the "join a crafting community" tip I'd mention that you can craft things on a level 1 character, for those who don't play any of the str classes.
Actually didn't know that. Really? Even level 70 recipes roll level 70 stats on a level 1 character? That sounds almost broken. Thanks, I'll add that!
Edit: oh I'd also mention Litany as one of the possible rings. That thing drops a lot and it's decent for this build. Elite damage reduction is one of the strongest stats for this imo.
Hm... I'll add it, but I'm not too keen on it. Litany has four fixed primaries (allres, life regeneration, main stat, elite reduction); so it cannot have both CDR and RCR, and it can never have lightning resist. It's pretty far off from my perfect ring. Maybe a strength Litany with high health globe bonus is an option, and then re-roll life regen to CDR. Along the same lines, a well-rolled Oculus is probably even better (same stats but IAS instead of life regen). Same problem - will never be really close to anything BiS, but maybe for beginners an option.
Okay, embedded your changes. Also switched to SoE in the "endgame gear" and switched lightning resist to health globe bonus on jewelry. Changed my mind on this, I think it's more important.
Oh, on hardcore it might be a bit dangerous, but I think if you stack up a bit more toughness than what I have in my guide it could work. For HC I would craft a Wall of Man and use a Justice Lantern; definitely helps a lot and should be a lot safer without sacrificing too much.
Sledge Fist is useless because EP only procs on the explosion... which means when the mob is dead. No point for stun on hit here.
And yes, Crimson materials are definitely the hardest to get. But note that basically almost *any* Crimson items will do; there are only very few stats that can roll on pants and boots and more than half of them are useful. I'd say if you craft 2-3 of each you should have decent Crimson items or you're super super unlucky. The don't need to be perfect, you just want the set bonus.
Well, for arcane I definitely always switch to my Julia's Cameo; the healing is just insane. But many other dangerous affixes are not mitigated by the String of Ears (Orbiter, Molten, Frozen Pulse) and those usually get me killed, especially Frozen Pulse because it's sometimes hard to notice. But I might edit that part and mention SoE as alternative. However, I really think one should aim for at least 2000 all resist and I just think that TGV gets you there earlier than the SoE which simply doesn't work on many dangerous affixes but helps a lot for stuff that doesn't kill you (a dozen white mobs hitting you). But yeah, SoE is a viable option.
What I was trying to say is that there's no one belt that is, like, a tier above all others. Both TGV and SoE are good ones, but I just felt like you put too much emphasis on highlighting TGV, almost as if it's a must have.
I always forget about Julia's existence though, I literally never had one myself lol. Yeah, if you're doing that switch, that definitely reduces the overall value of SoE.
In my final gear setup I have Aughild's instead of Born's - but still using Mind's Eye, because you can get to 70% CDR without Kekegi's. And honestly, you can never have enough spirit; more EP casts = more heal for the group and more explosions; more CS casts = avoid that a few mobs get away. Even with 300 spirit and 35 spirit regen I run out of spirit from time to time. More is just better and Kekegi's imho is simply no match for a well-rolled Mind's Eye by any stretch of imagination.
I can see socket as second priority but absolutely nothing is more important than CDR, I completely disagree here. If you don't get 2x 10% CDR on weapons you have absolutely no chance of getting to 70% - and imho 70% is crucial. With 70% CDR you've already got an Epiphany downtime of almost 4 seconds and that's already quite dangerous (Frozen/Jailer and GG). But I'll add socket as an alternative and #2 in the final gear, thanks.
I see. I think the reason we have different vision here is because the way I progressed to Karma's build is by slowly gearing towards CDR whilst running a "normal" EP build, with a spirit generator, whilst this guide is about rushing for CDR directly and adapting Karma's playstyle as soon as possible.
Actually didn't know that. Really? Even level 70 recipes roll level 70 stats on a level 1 character? That sounds almost broken. Thanks, I'll add that!
Yeah, I just did that a few days ago on a level 1 Crusader. Just remember to switch the crafting menu filter to "All" instead of "Highest usable" or whatever it's on by default.
Hm... I'll add it, but I'm not too keen on it. Litany has four fixed primaries (allres, life regeneration, main stat, elite reduction); so it cannot have both CDR and RCR, and it can never have lightning resist. It's pretty far off from my perfect ring. Maybe a strength Litany with high health globe bonus is an option, and then re-roll life regen to CDR. Along the same lines, a well-rolled Oculus is probably even better (same stats but IAS instead of life regen). Same problem - will never be really close to anything BiS, but maybe for beginners an option.
Yeah, it's far from a perfect or even a good one, but it seems to drop a lot and if you don't have a SoJ (which seems incredibly hard to get a decent roll of), you could run it. Oculus is a decent option too, used to play with one myself before SoJ; and used a Litany (which I got like, 5 of) early on.
Actually, I played with someone earlier this week who was using the Laws of Seph and I agree. I personally wouldn't go there because my group got so used to the damage and speed buff of MoC, but it's an option. I've added this to the guide. Thanks!
Great guide, helped me out a lot. Could you guys explain how does the guiding light passive works? does it increase your allies' dps or the damage of your monk alone?
Whats the best ways to utilize the synergy between epiphany and guiding light? should I wait until my allies' hp to go down a bit or should I just spam healz all the time?
Great guide, helped me out a lot. Could you guys explain how does the guiding light passive works? does it increase your allies' dps or the damage of your monk alone?
Whats the best ways to utilize the synergy between epiphany and guiding light? should I wait until my allies' hp to go down a bit or should I just spam healz all the time?
Guiding Light gives a buff to ALL allies whenever you heal them. You heal whenever you cast any spell (that's how Epiphany with that rune works). Essentially, you're constantly refreshing the buff; of course, when your allies are at full health, it might not be super effective but you should definitely *not* stop casting EP/CS just because it would decrease the Guiding Light buff on your allies ;-)
This is only an addition to the "Guiding Palm Monk" thread by karma. All the credit to him! Some people convinced me to put this in a new thread, so here it goes.
For those who're lazy: there's a TL;DR.
I've played this build all weekend and tested many many different gear combinations. I'd also like to add that I'm usually not playing a dex class, so I essentially started my gearing at zero (or close to zero; my previous tank monk had a completely different design idea so I couldn't reuse lots of his gear). Many people in this thread have said that this build requires lots of effort and is not suitable for beginners. Well, I beg to differ. Within one weekend my noobish monk went from nowhere to T6 roflstomp mode. Plus, I don't consider myself a good/skilled player, so if I can do it, everyone can. The only thing is to get the gearing right.
Important note: I do not play a monk for DPS, in my opinion there are five better classes right now. If you intend to merge gear with a DPS monk gearset, stop reading. However, if your monk is your main you should have a much easier transition anyways. This is a guide for people like me who only actually want to play a support monk and start his/her gear from scratch.
Phase 1: The basics
Your goals are 70% CDR, 2k all resist, and 10k armor. Everything else is less important; you need to get to these three figures to get the build running. Once you've reached those numbers you will be able to run this build at least on Torment 5 without problems. Your Exploding Palm won't be strong yet, but make sure you stay alive first before boosting your EP damage!
1) Non-craftable gear
The first slot that we want a non-craftable item in is the belt. My choice is a Thundergod's Vigor. It does absolutely not matter which stats it has; it always has at least 160 lightning resist and 426 vitality. You will re-roll one of the random rolls (or dex if it's a dex TGV) to all resist, so this belt alone will provide you with 250-300 all resist. A very good alternative is the String of Ears. Many say it's better than TGV, but note that the melee mitigation currently doesn't work on many elite affixes. TGV's all resist always works.
Secondly, you absolutely need a Ring of Royal Grandeur, preferably a non-dex one (450 str for 450 armor or 450 int for 45 all resist are better than dex). If you have a spare RoRG that you don't mind destroying re-roll any stat to cooldown reduction. Even if you can't do that no worries, we will get there. Just get ANY RoRG.
Thirdly, and this is probably the most difficult item to get, you need a spirit stone (monk helmet). Do some "Rift it Forward" or rifting with other characters and gamble on your monk; you either want a Kekegi's Unbreakable Spirit or, in my opinion even better, The Mind's Eye. Many people prefer the Kekegi's because of its CDR, but I think you can get to 70% CDR even without it and then profit from the insane spirit regeneration that this helmet offers. Kekegi's has a 30 second internal cooldown and even a perfectly rolled one would only allow you for 13.3% uptime of the buff; The Mind's Eye provides you with up to 15 spirit per second and since you're standing in Inner Sanctuary 100% of the time (100% IS uptime with 70% CDR) you get +15 spirit regen per second all the time. Win-win. This is my endgame choice, so it's worth gambling for it. If you get neither of those it's still possible to play this build! Another option to consider, especially in the beginning, is The Laws of Seph. It provides you with insane amounts of spirit, but you need to give up your Mantra of Conviction for Blinding Flash - Repleneshing Light. (Thanks Kueken for the hint!)
Furthermore, you need one additional ring and one amulet. The stats priorities here are simple: 1) 8% cooldown reduction (we don't accept less), 2) lightning resist (mandatory), 3) resource cost reduction, 4) health globe bonus. Toughness stats don't hurt (vitality, life%, strength, intelligence, armor, socket) but don't suffice alone. It doesn't matter which amulet/ring it is, as long as it has at least 2-3 of the first four mentioned stats.
Last but not least, look out for a "crappy Sun Keeper" that would otherwise be salvaged. A Sun Keeper with less than 2000 DPS and no socket is going to get salvaged by anyone, but for us only the elite damage is important. Furthermore, we are going to enchant it for +10% CDR. In the meantime, any other crappy weapon with 10% CDR is fine as well; if you can grab any crap mace or sword with 10% CDR you can even put 10% resource cost reduction on it and you have a pretty good weapon until you get the desired endgame weapon: The Fist of Az'Turrasq, or in short FoA.
2) Craftable gear
Most of your gear can be crafted. You will craft three sets: Crimson's, Born's, and Aughild's. Furthermore, we will craft gloves; this is a perfect opportunity to get rid of all the Adventurer's Journals, or you can craft Asheara's Gloves to be used on your other classes later on if the rolls turn out to be "good". Note that you should craft those on a crusader/barbarian to get strength as main stat roll. Here's a list of all the items you need to craft and the stats you should prioritize:
For most of those items you only need 2 or 3 of the first 4 priorities, re-roll one with the Mystic, and you're done. This is really not that difficult. If you think you can't farm the materials then join one of the "crafting mats farm" communities; they're awesome and let you get the materials really quick.
Here's a breakdown in Excel of what a really "badly rolled start set" would look like, with only ~3-4 of the desired stats on each gear (really, with crafting and the Mystic this is absolutely doable):
http://i.imgur.com/aLDfLuD.png
This is assumed that you have paragon 300, 5x 74 all resist diamonds and one top tier diamond for the helmet (plus optional diamonds for weapons or jewellery if you decide to pick a socket here). Furthermore, I've assumed an 8% CDR RoRG; however, as you can see, CDR is already higher than necessary. If you don't have a CDR RoRG you need to hit all the max rolls on every other slot; otherwise you can be below the minimum roll on a few slots and still get to 70% CDR.
3) Paragon points/skills
You will have movement speed on boots, so you need to put between 26 and 30 points there in paragon. After this, max spirit. If you have points left put them in vitality. On the offense tab the order is CDR, IAS, CC, CHD. On defense it's all resist, armor, life%, life regeneration. On utility it's resource cost reduction, then area damage, then gold, then LoH (it's useless in this build).
Start by using this build: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#VfPRdk!UbVf!ZZbcaY (you can later swap the Strong Spirit rune to Flesh of the Weak.)
4) TL;DR: Breakdown of items/stats
For those that are too lazy but can handly acronyms, let's make it a bit simpler: you want Born's shoulders+weapon, Aughild's chest+bracers, Crimson's pants+boots, any RoRG and TGV, and any amulet, gloves, other ring, weapon, and helmet. All gems are diamonds (max in helmet); that includes weapon.
Stat priorities are (in this order): 1) CDR, 2) sockets where possible, 3) health globe bonus, 4) lightning resist, 5) resource cost reduction, 6) strength, 7) elite damage reduction, 8) armor, 9) vitality, 10) IAS.
Stats you really don't want because they don't help at all (or only help so little that it's not worth it): critical hit chance, critical hit damage, dexterity, life on hit, life regeneration, any proc effects (like Thunderfury's proc or chance to stun/slow/freeze), crowd control reduction.
Phase 2: Upgrading from "I can barely do this" to "we own the night"
I'm going to keep this short, because karma covered the BiS gear in his OP already. I'm just going to weigh in my opinion on some of the items that I would choose differently:
1) As I said, The Mind's Eye in my opinion is way better than Kekegi's. I'm close to 40 spirit regeneration now and my EP cost is down to 24 at a spirit pool of 300... I can faceroll my keyboard, I never run out of spirit.
2) TGV over any other belt unless you hit really high all resist (2500ish). It's a freaking 300 all resist. String of Ears, in my opinion, is pretty much useless at the moment as most of the badass elite affixes aren't mitigated by it (seems to be a bug) and those are the only things that kill you. TGV's all res works on everything - ranged, melee, elite. I guess it's a matter of preference, but whenever I died it was due to a situation where the String of Ears wouldn't have helped at all.
3) Born's versus Aughild's. I think many people dismiss Born's too easily. Having more CDR is just insane because it makes stuff so much easier if you have almost zero downtime on Epiphany and you can cast a new IS before the old one disappears. It works so well together with The Mind's Eye and helps me to get over the 8% CDR I lose over my Kekegi's (although it's not necessary anyways to get to 70% CDR). It really helps if you have awesome items (a nice SoJ or Halycon's Ascent) that come without or little CDR. In the spreadsheet below I still chose Aughild's, but right now I'm running Born's (because I just have too damn good rolls on my Born's set items and like the 73% CDR).
4) Max CDR and survivability before thinking too much about physical/elite damage. If I can squeeze in one more EP and palm one more mob, the additional explosion will help more than just a few palms that do higher damage due to maxed out physical/elite damage gear. More palms also help to spread the explosions over a larger area. Your first priority is to stay alive; your second priority is to palm everything.
5) Alternatives for the SoJ: I know that the SoJ is an insanely good ring because of maxing EP, but like I said, I think there are other rings to consider. One that works really well is Krede's Flame. If you have a large health pool (I'm at 650k at the moment) you can easily survive a couple of Molten explosions, but they re-fill my spirit. I want to test a Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band as well, though not sure how good the heal is. I just like that on other rings I can get my perfect stats (8% CDR, 8% RCR, 500 strength, 500 vit, lightning resist or health globe bonus) as opposed to a SoJ that always has a couple of "useless" ones. Other alternatives that are easy to acquire because they're very easy to get are the Litany of the Undaunted (thanks Thaya for the hint) or the Oculus Ring. Both have four fixed primary stats (elite damage reduction, all resist, main stat, and life regen (Litany) or IAS (Oculus)). Note that they can never have lightning resist, you need to re-roll them to CDR, and they absolutely need to have health globe bonus to be worth considering.
Here's a snap shot of my personal "BiS gear" I'm trying to get:
http://i.imgur.com/BoJpDyE.png
Feel free to point out any mistakes/areas for improvements. It's exactly at 70% CDR but all other stats are insane (super high RCR, 99% elite melee mitigation, and so on). Assumed paragon 500.
Regarding Kekegi's vs Mind's Eye: if you're at 70% CDR, you don't have any spirit issues anyway via Epiphany, but the reason you can do that and still have enough CDR is because you use Born's. I think the Aughilds + Kekegi's > Born's + Mind's Eye, though, because Aughild's set bonuses are overall stronger. Born's gets you 10% CDR and 15% Life versus Aughild's 15% to elites, -15% from elites, and -7% melee/ranged damage. It's just flat out better, imo, but I guess both variants work. I would put the Aughilds + Kekegi's variant as the primary one, however.
Armor roll is completely irrelevant too. No way you should mention that in front of elite damage reduction (on chest). If you get decent rolls, you'll want to use them regardless of how much armor the item rolled. I wouldn't advice people to pay attention to that at all.
I'd rank sockets on weapons above CDR as well, damage to elites is one of the few things that Exploding Palm does scale with. But it can work without sockets too, I guess.
Along with the "join a crafting community" tip I'd mention that you can craft things on a level 1 character, for those who don't play any of the str classes.
Otherwise this is pretty neat.
Edit: oh I'd also mention Litany as one of the possible rings. That thing drops a lot and it's decent for this build. Elite damage reduction is one of the strongest stats for this imo.
Well, for arcane I definitely always switch to my Julia's Cameo; the healing is just insane. But many other dangerous affixes are not mitigated by the String of Ears (Orbiter, Molten, Frozen Pulse) and those usually get me killed, especially Frozen Pulse because it's sometimes hard to notice. But I might edit that part and mention SoE as alternative. However, I really think one should aim for at least 2000 all resist and I just think that TGV gets you there earlier than the SoE which simply doesn't work on many dangerous affixes but helps a lot for stuff that doesn't kill you (a dozen white mobs hitting you). But yeah, SoE is a viable option.
In my final gear setup I have Aughild's instead of Born's - but still using Mind's Eye, because you can get to 70% CDR without Kekegi's. And honestly, you can never have enough spirit; more EP casts = more heal for the group and more explosions; more CS casts = avoid that a few mobs get away. Even with 300 spirit and 35 spirit regen I run out of spirit from time to time. More is just better and Kekegi's imho is simply no match for a well-rolled Mind's Eye by any stretch of imagination.
Armor on chests can roll up to 595, note that I say "high armor roll". Anyways, as I mentioned it's just elites that get you killed - I'll switch the order there. Thanks!
I can see socket as second priority but absolutely nothing is more important than CDR, I completely disagree here. If you don't get 2x 10% CDR on weapons you have absolutely no chance of getting to 70% - and imho 70% is crucial. With 70% CDR you've already got an Epiphany downtime of almost 4 seconds and that's already quite dangerous (Frozen/Jailer and GG). But I'll add socket as an alternative and #2 in the final gear, thanks.
Actually didn't know that. Really? Even level 70 recipes roll level 70 stats on a level 1 character? That sounds almost broken. Thanks, I'll add that!
Hm... I'll add it, but I'm not too keen on it. Litany has four fixed primaries (allres, life regeneration, main stat, elite reduction); so it cannot have both CDR and RCR, and it can never have lightning resist. It's pretty far off from my perfect ring. Maybe a strength Litany with high health globe bonus is an option, and then re-roll life regen to CDR. Along the same lines, a well-rolled Oculus is probably even better (same stats but IAS instead of life regen). Same problem - will never be really close to anything BiS, but maybe for beginners an option.
I thought you can't reroll all resist for primary If your second stats has any particular elemental resist.
Thanks!
That's true. Except for Thundergod's Vigor. TGV can roll both lightning resist (will always roll by default, 160-200) plus all resist.
Oh, on hardcore it might be a bit dangerous, but I think if you stack up a bit more toughness than what I have in my guide it could work. For HC I would craft a Wall of Man and use a Justice Lantern; definitely helps a lot and should be a lot safer without sacrificing too much.
Sledge Fist is useless because EP only procs on the explosion... which means when the mob is dead. No point for stun on hit here.
And yes, Crimson materials are definitely the hardest to get. But note that basically almost *any* Crimson items will do; there are only very few stats that can roll on pants and boots and more than half of them are useful. I'd say if you craft 2-3 of each you should have decent Crimson items or you're super super unlucky. The don't need to be perfect, you just want the set bonus.
I always forget about Julia's existence though, I literally never had one myself lol. Yeah, if you're doing that switch, that definitely reduces the overall value of SoE.
I see. I think the reason we have different vision here is because the way I progressed to Karma's build is by slowly gearing towards CDR whilst running a "normal" EP build, with a spirit generator, whilst this guide is about rushing for CDR directly and adapting Karma's playstyle as soon as possible.
Yeah, I just did that a few days ago on a level 1 Crusader. Just remember to switch the crafting menu filter to "All" instead of "Highest usable" or whatever it's on by default.
Yeah, it's far from a perfect or even a good one, but it seems to drop a lot and if you don't have a SoJ (which seems incredibly hard to get a decent roll of), you could run it. Oculus is a decent option too, used to play with one myself before SoJ; and used a Litany (which I got like, 5 of) early on.
Actually, I played with someone earlier this week who was using the Laws of Seph and I agree. I personally wouldn't go there because my group got so used to the damage and speed buff of MoC, but it's an option. I've added this to the guide. Thanks!
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mdeiz5
Whats the best ways to utilize the synergy between epiphany and guiding light? should I wait until my allies' hp to go down a bit or should I just spam healz all the time?
Guiding Light gives a buff to ALL allies whenever you heal them. You heal whenever you cast any spell (that's how Epiphany with that rune works). Essentially, you're constantly refreshing the buff; of course, when your allies are at full health, it might not be super effective but you should definitely *not* stop casting EP/CS just because it would decrease the Guiding Light buff on your allies ;-)